Walnut Vanity and Top

This is my first commissioned piece, well the first of any real significance, and a lumberjocks first for me. The clients wanted a new vanity with a wood top. They already had the sinks picked out and it had to fit with them. It also had to have more storage than the previous vanity. The old one was two wide vanities with two very tiny drawers. This one has five, with three being full depth. They left pretty much everything else up to me. One of the clients also happens to be my boss, so the pressure was really on. It took a little while to figure out what wood to use. I knew right away I wanted walnut for the top, but I knew I didn’t want the whole thing to be walnut. Considered bleaching walnut for a while in an effort to get the walnut grain, but then stain it to that deep caramel color in walnut to give a little contrast. That fell through and I ended up going with cherry instead. I was a little worried that the cherry would have contrasted too much, but it ended up looking pretty good. The top was done with four pieces of walnut joined with a whole bunch of biscuits and a second layer added around the perimeter for the bull nose. The case, face, and doors and drawers are finished with two coats of satin poly, and the top was treated to six coats of Epiphanes gloss varnish. I don’t have a dust collection system in my garage, so the top has a little trash in it, but all in all, we were all very pleased with the outcome.

Would also like to thank LJ’s for a lot of great ideas and guidance.

-- They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.